Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scot King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006

FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006

Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Chairman, nearly 150 years ago, after a long and bloody civil war, our Nation recognized that minorities should have the right to participate as full citizens in our democracy. Unfortunately, granting a right in the constitution and enforcing that right throughout America are two different challenges, and 100 years later, minorities still have trouble casting a ballot in some parts of the country. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to put an end to the racially discriminatory voting practices plaguing the South, and other parts of the country. Now 40 years have gone by, and some of my colleagues might tell you that we don't need the Voting Rights Act anymore, that we've fixed the problems, and that every adult citizen in this country has the same opportunity to cast his or her ballot.

While I truly wish that were the case, I'm here to tell you that racially discriminatory voting practices are still alive and well in many parts of the United States. For a clear example of why the Voting Rights Act remains relevant and necessary, take a look at Robert Kennedy Jr.'s exhaustively researched article which just ran in Rolling Stone Magazine--I ask unanimous consent to insert a copy of the article into the record. In his article, Robert Kennedy, Jr. lays out a clear pattern of voting irregularities in Ohio in 2004, many of which disenfranchised African American voters in particular. Together, these irregularities may have even played a part in the outcome of the election.

Mr. Chairman, from Buffalo to Rochester, my district is home to some of the most significant moments in the history of the civil rights movement. In 1847, abolitionist Frederick Douglass began circulating the North Star in Rochester, New York. The paper won acclaim from the local printer's union, gave Mr. Douglass a platform to spread his message of civil rights, and demonstrated the successes possible for free African Americans. In July 1905, the Niagara Movement held a meeting in Buffalo during which W.E.B. DuBois authored the Declaration of Principles. This document would later become the basis of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, our Nation's most prominent civil rights organization.

I am proud to represent a district with such a rich history in civil rights, and am fully committee to ensuring that the protections that courageous activists from Buffalo and Rochester worked so hard to achieve are diminished.

North Star bore the motto, ``Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren.'' I hope that motto will guide my colleagues as we consider legislation to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Our democracy relies upon the ideal that everyone has an equal voice in each election, and the Voting Rights Act has been a vital component in ensuring that this ideal is enforced. Our Nation has come a long way in protecting the voting rights of minorities, but we still have a long way to go.

To weaken the Voting Rights Act would weaken our democracy itself, and everything we stand for as Americans.

http://thomas.loc.gov